(noisy) n7700 fans

[Manni]

I want to get 4x of these --- because its SO much quieter.. 1/2 dB value

but... the airflow is almost 2.5x less airflow

what do you think manni?
p


Model Name: Mini Kaze 4cm Silent Fan
Model Number: SY124010L

Dimensions: 40x40x10mm
Fan Speed: 3500rpm(±10%)
Fan Noise: 14.00dBA
Airflow: 4.11CFM
Rated Voltage: 12V
Rated Current: 0.06A
Bearing Type: Sleeve Bearing
MTBF: 30,000 hours

I definitely wouldn't go for a model with 2.5x less airflow, even if it's near silent. You're asking for trouble...
You may have something wrong with the fans, they are supposed to be regulated, I can barely hear them.

By the way I have now 7x1.5tb (wd15eads) in the n7700, and the temp is 35-37 during RAID build (so max stress). It's closer to 27-28 idle.

I had 8 reallocated sectors on one of the drive just after formatting the raid the first time, and it dropped out of the raid (I had activated TLER on all drives). WD diag says it's fie, so I'm reformatting now the 7 drives, hoping the sector count is not going to grow (I'm raid6/xfs so it should be fine if it does).

[nekron]

Hi Manni,

have you been able to enable TLER on your WD15EADS drives? (I'd like to upgrade my raid 5 with these drives).
Has your raid 5 with these drives been running fine? For how long? Could you provide any info on your experiences with these drives please? Noisy, fast, hickups, ... ?
Thanks.

[Manni]

Hi Manni,

have you been able to enable TLER on your WD15EADS drives? (I'd like to upgrade my raid 5 with these drives).
Has your raid 5 with these drives been running fine? For how long? Could you provide any info on your experiences with these drives please? Noisy, fast, hickups, ... ?
Thanks.

Hi Nekron,

I have enabled tler on the wd15eads without any problem, before putting them in the n7700 when I received them two days ago (around 52 hours runtime for those tested first!).
They formatted fine, but just after the formatting (raid5, xfs, 3 drives as a test), one of them dropped out of the raid, with 8 reallocated sectors. I think it's a one off. I formatted the remaining 6 drives in raid5, they worked fine. Then I checked the dodgy one with WD diag, and it showed no issue (quick test, not extended). So I put it back, it still showed 8 realocated, no pending. So I formatted the 7 drives in raid6, just to see, as I wanted to stress them and check performance. The dodgy drive is fine, no more rea sectors. I've received the replacement today, I'm going to rebuild the raid overnight.

Overall happy with the drives, they work fin and I think the dodgy one was a one off, probably knocked during shipping. Very silent (can't really hear them), temp around 32-34 idle, 35-37 full stress, with the noctua fans). My room is a loft with too many computers, so ambiant is quite high.

My only issue is that at the moment, I get good write performance but half the read performance I would expect, and I have no idea why. It's not the HDs or the n7700, I have the same problem with the n5200 (which uses 5x1TB WD RE2 GP). I've tried to take everything out of the network but one nas and one PC, tried with different PCs, swapped cables... I really have no idea.

Using ATTO, I get about 95mb/s write max (at 128ko size), but 56mb/s read max on the N7700, and the other values are the same (read half write value).

Using drag and drop, I get around 50-65mo/s write, and only 25-35mo/s read.

Any idea?

[Manni]

Just to update, I have replaced the defective HD, raid has rebuilt overnight, I've transfered data all day, there is no problem at all.

So it was a one-off defective HD.

Re performance, I get 50-55mo/s read, and around 45-50mo/s write through drag & drop under vista32, which I reckon is typical, and is about 50% more than my n5200 (not pro).

I give up on the benchmarks, they return unreliable values.

[Manni]

Just another update, I've noticed there was a 9000 size for jumbo frames available on the n7700, so I activated it (I have a compatible switch and adaptors), and was very impressed with the improvement: 75MB/s read and 57MB/s write (real world vista drag and drop on large files).
I think this is limited by the hard drive I could use on my laptop to test. ATTO says 80-90MB/s both ways.
Unfortunately XFS is still vey slow with small files, so I've kept my office files on the N5200 in EXT3.

[tsouche]

I have replaced both case fans with a Noctua NF-B9 (92x92x25).
Extremely easy to do (undo the 4 back screws, the back panel comes off, unscrew the original fans, disconnect the fans, use the plastic silent blocks that come with the Noctuas to mount them, connect the noctuas, replace back panel). Total time 10mn max, N7700 COMPLETELY SILENT! Total cost around £30 including VAT an shipping.

Thank you a lot for this advise: I just replaced the two fans and the N7700 is now very silent (more silent than the ReadyNAS NV (only 4 disks) zhich stands just next to it!

Manni: a big great THANK YOU!!!

[Manni]

Thank you a lot for this advise: I just replaced the two fans and the N7700 is now very silent (more silent than the ReadyNAS NV (only 4 disks) zhich stands just next to it!

Manni: a big great THANK YOU!!!

You're welcome, glad sharing my experience was helpful to you!

[tsouche]

Just another update, I've noticed there was a 9000 size for jumbo frames available on the n7700, so I activated it (I have a compatible switch and adaptors), and was very impressed with the improvement: 75MB/s read and 57MB/s write (real world vista drag and drop on large files).
I think this is limited by the hard drive I could use on my laptop to test. ATTO says 80-90MB/s both ways.

Hi Manny,

I've activated jumbo frame up to 7000 size (which is what my switches and adapters can cope with) but unfortunately I didnt detect any improvement:

• drag and drop from windows 7 gives a poor 50MB/s read and 25MB/s write (XFS, 7x2TB disks)
• super-copier 2.2 improves the write to ca. 27MB/s write
• ftp (with filezilla) gives a 60MB/s read and 27-28MB/s write.

I guess I should use link aggregation and skip the switches in case I want to achieve better performance...

I sitll have one question for you: what is 'ATTO' you keep metionning: is it a copy software? ftp client?

[Manni]

Hi Manny,

I've activated jumbo frame up to 7000 size (which is what my switches and adapters can cope with) but unfortunately I didnt detect any improvement:

• drag and drop from windows 7 gives a poor 50MB/s read and 25MB/s write (XFS, 7x2TB disks)
• super-copier 2.2 improves the write to ca. 27MB/s write
• ftp (with filezilla) gives a 60MB/s read and 27-28MB/s write.

I guess I should use link aggregation and skip the switches in case I want to achieve better performance...

I sitll have one question for you: what is 'ATTO' you keep metionning: is it a copy software? ftp client?

Re ATTO, it's a free software, just google ATTO disk benchmark and you'll find it.

Re your perfs, you may want to update your network drivers on the client (latest Intel or Broadcom dependng on your motherboard/laptop), and see if it improves things.

You should be able to obtain more, unless you're using old drives (I used WD15EADS).

By the way I don't have an N7700 anymore (moved to a Qnap TS-809).